Thursday, February 26, 2009

Memories that can be worn

Do you have a piece of clothing that you refuse to get rid of? You might not even realize that you would never get rid of it, but it’s there.

I have my wedding dress, heirloomed, in my attic. Never going to get rid of it. I have one pair of pants that I can’t get rid of because I was skinny when I wore them and it is a good memory for me…you know, you have that pair in the back of your closet too. I hang onto shoes and purses (ahem…handbags).

But what is the thing that brings back more memories than anything else?

T-SHIRTS.

Look at how many I own:

I know, ridiculous. And that is what my closet looks like. Judge if you will, I don't care.

And here are a few of my favorite…

My Annie shirt. Two words. VERY COMFORTABLE.
1994 Camp Tahkodah shirt. I hang onto it because it is from the first summer that Matthew and I met. Awwwww.
This lovely airbrushed t-shirt is memorable to me because I got it with my friend, Clair. I would be surprised if she still has hers. It is also one of the most comfortable t-shirts that I have. Hideous, I know.
This t-shirt is my shirt from my first Race for the Cure run.November 3, 2002. I remember the race very well. I was going through a very growing time in my life. I was dating Matthew, but he was in Arkansas and I was in Tennessee. I spent a lot of time alone because I lived by myself and had no family close by. I loved my friends at school and had recently started going to a new church. It was out of character for me to sign up for something where I didn’t think I would know other participants, but I paid my money and showed up for the event. I was SO out of shape and had only planned on walking. Well, the competitive side of me came out and I attempted to jog some of it. I probably jogged 2 out of the 3.2 miles of the race. When I crossed the finish line, I loved it! I thought, hey, I could run a longer race than that. SOOOOO, I looked to find out when the Country Music ½ Marathon was going to be and decided to start training for it.

I was NOT a runner and had to start extraordinarily slow. Run 1 minute, walk 3 minutes, run 1 minute, walk 3 minutes. A few weeks later, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. I kept building up from that until I was able to run 30 minutes without stopping.

I knew that I would need accountability, so that led me to asking some women I worked with to join me in my crazy endeavor. And I made some pretty amazing friendships because of all the miles we ran together. From November to April, we ran together, talked together, shared running injuries with each other, laughed together, prayed for each other, anticipated the run together. I loved those few months. I was getting fit, I was in love, I was planning a wedding, I was enjoying teaching, I was spiritually strong, I was very confident and happy. (I'm still most of those, but back then, it was the first time for me to be so spiritually strong, so confident, and so happy that it really sticks out in my mind.)


Here is the t-shirt from my first ½ marathon. NEVER. GOING. TO. GET. RID. OF. IT.

What about you? Any t-shirts that you refuse to get rid of, even though you don't wear them any longer? And no, I will not be making a quilt out of them. Don't even get me started on that.

8 comments:

Tesney said...

I get rid of t-shirts all the time, but I have three sweatshirts that I can't part with:
-a Duke sweatshirt that I have had since I think 7th or 8th grade. It is so comfy and I even took it to HUF and didn't get sick of it!
-a Snoopy sweatshirt that my college friend gave me...it came from Italy and says "Ti Amo" on it.
-an Alabama sweatshirt from when they won the 1992 National Championship. I would love to replace that one soon...like maybe next season.

Kim said...

I admire you so much for the running, so I would never part with that one, either.
I wish I had more t-shirts. I'm t-shirt poor. My husband's stack looks just like yours-he keeps them all!

Holly Aytes said...

I have a few hanging around....some of my favorites are from Tri Kappa at HU. Those are really special since Tri Kappa no longer exists. I admire that run...I am working on starting to run. My 8 yr old is running cross country for her school and I am "training" with her at home, slowly!

Sandi said...

oh, goodness -- I'm such a dork. I can't let go of any of my college t-shirts (functions, bid day, etc.). I've started getting rid of the ones that were guys' functions. :)

Thank goodness we wore them big back then because they still fit!

Lane said...

Oh goodness yes!! I have ALL of my Kojie shirts and even some from jr. high and high school!!

Lisa said...

I have tons of t-shirts from my softball and basketball days. I have them stored at my parents house, then I have a few (dozen) that I have at my house. One of these days I will get motivated to do something with them, but until then, they will live in the storage container.

Whitney said...

Oh my goodness, I had to get rid of a ton of tshirts this past spring (now that I look back on it, I was totally nesting.) Anyway, the majority of mine were club function shirts. Fun memories!

Mrs. Hughes said...

I cannot tell you how many times I have gone through my stack of tshirts thinking I need to get rid of some... and I never do! I even have a vacation tshirt that my best friend bought for me in the fourth grade when she went to Cancun!

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